1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to machines that move or push material such as dirt, asphalt and the like. The new device is a side attachment blade for deployment beyond the width of the vehicle wheels to move material adjacent to the machine.
2. Description of Related Art
Various extension blades or wings have been disclosed in related art for use with bulldozers, snow plows, road graders and the like. Most of these devices are designed to either extend the length of the plow blade as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,654, issued May 18, 1999 or to retain material being pushed or plowed within the blade as for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,986. In these applications the wing is either in the plane of the machine blade or is angled forward therefrom.
Other devices for material moving machines include use of machine blade extension which rotate rearward of the machine primary blade to move material away from a road edge. Such devices are typified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,254, issued Jan. 17, 1964. In this disclosure a wing member is pivotally attached to the end of a motor grader primary blade. The structure pushes snow that has been moved by a leading snow plow further away from a roadway edge. The mounting and operational structure is quite complex for the application and is limited to motor grader type machines.
The present invention defines a simple attachment and control apparatus for a side attachment blade to be used with bulldozers, tractors, backhoes, loaders and the like. The side blade is mounted to be deployable beyond the width of the vehicle wheels.
When the side blade is angularly deployed the tractor or other machine may be operated along a road edge in a continuous manner to move material away from the side of a road or into a ditch and to grade road edge slopes. Thus the tractor is not required to make short forward and backward movements at an angle to the material to be moved to for example fill a ditch with dirt.
One object of the present invention is improved operation of material moving machines for movement of material such as dirt, asphalt, gravel and the like that is adjacent to the side of the machine. Another object is improved safety of operating a material moving machine on a roadway while pushing material off the roadway or away from the edge of the roadway. A further object is reduction of head and body movement of an operator when moving material.